RAW support for new cameras in Mojave

[R2FX]

Not sure it's the right section, but I'd like to ask if it's possible to get some kind of update for new cameras (Nikon Z6 ii) to be understood by macOS? Right now the only app that can open the files is Capture One, system apps (Finder, Preview) just throw 'unsupported format' error.

I somehow remember that the RAW updates were independent from OS X in the past, but after digging around it seems the only way is to upgrade to Big Sur?

I still use some 32bit apps that won't be updated to 64bit, still have stuff in Dashboard etc... so upgrading beyond Mojave would be a major PITA.

Appreciate any suggestions 🙏

 

[Slartibart]

Have you tried this with uncompressed RAWs? Like uncompressed 14-bit sRGB or uncompressed 14 bit Adobe RGB? Uncompressed files can often be opened even by older OS versions, and there seems to be no difference between these coming from a Z6 - which is supported by Mojave - and the Z6 II.

(Additionally you might check the firmware of your Z6 II - so I’m not sure wether the changes in the latest version in RAW for Video affect the still photo side.)

 

[R2FX]

Thanks for the tip - I'm always using lossless compressed RAW and using the latest firmware.

Have changed it to "no compression" and took few shots but same result - Mojave doesn't recognize the file :/

It's a shame as the sensor is identical to Z6, so was hoping it would work

 

[Wowfunhappy]

Are you willing to turn off SIP and do some experimenting?

I was able to backport RAW support for the Nikon D750 from Yosemite to Mavericks. It should work for other cameras, as long as there's a similar model which worked and you're only going back a few versions.

The camera files (at least in Mavericks and Yosemite, but I suspect it's the same) are in /System/Library/CoreServices/RawCameraSupport.bundle/Contents/Resources/Plugins.zip. The .cam files inside are actually plists, you can convert them to xml with plutil -convert xml1 [file].

First, find a similar camera to yours which was supported in Mojave, and look at what values changed between Mojave and Big Sur (a diff viewer like Kaleidoscope will make this easier). Now, make those same changes to the .cam file for your camera, copy it to Mojave, zip it back up and replace the original.